WANT TO HAVE SOME WINE AND FUN? Then you need to buy your ticket to the Colorado Wine Walks coming up in April. I've got James Blanchard from Blanchard Family Wines and The Wine Yogi Kristal Alfonso on the show to talk about it. Buy your tickets here, and read the Wine Yogi's blog about it here. She's got two tickets to the wine seminar to give away today!
STRAIGHT MEMBERS OF THE COLORADO LEGISLATURE WANT TO IGNORE GAY HISTORY In the push to allow felons who declare they are transgender to legally change their names (thus allowing them to deny their criminal past) Gays Against Groomer's Rich Guggenheim went to testify at the Legislature against the bill. Here is his testimony:
My name is Dr. Rich Guggenheim. I am a homosexual resident of Denver.
I would like to take a moment of your time to share with you a prominent piece of the gay and lesbian liberation movement from Stonewall.
I want to tell you about the history of Malcom Michaels Jr., and Tony Rivera. Both were gay, black men, sex workers, drag queens, and convicted felons. Both were well known in the gay community in the 1960s and 70s. Malcom may be more familiar to you by his drag name, Marsha P. Johnson and is falsely identified today as a transgender woman. Malcom was frequently seen with Tony Rivera, who went by the drag name Sylvia.
Both were heavy cocaine users. In fact, the false narrative today is that Marsha threw the first brick, yet Marsha admitted to never even being at Stonewall and instead was with Sylvia, who was passed out from cocaine on a bench in Bryant Park.
Marsha and Sylvia are also known for running the STAR house. A home for gay run-away boys as young as 10. STAR house is described as a child prostitution operation and "shelter.” The owner of the building, Michael "Dirty Mike" Umber, a Carlo Gambino soldier, made boy on boy porn. The children were sex trafficked on 42nd Street by Rivera and Michaels for "Matty" Lanniello and his crew.
Today we have another former felon, black gay man, sex worker who identifies as transgender, and uses children to perform in sexually provocative shows in adult burlesque clubs in Colorado Springs promoting this bill. The parallels are astonishing!
Gay and Lesbian people fought back against allowing people like Malcom and Rivera into the community. They pushed back and worked for decades to destroy the talking points from people like Anita Bryant that homosexuals are child pedophiles. Today, half a century later, we are here in this building, in this room, fighting the exact same fight.
HB24-1071, introduced in the legislature, is being presented a group and individual who seek to allow convicted former felons like him to change his name and gender identity.
Like Malcom and Rivera, a man who has a criminal record.
Like Malcom and Rivera, a man who does drag.
Like Malcom and Rivera, a man who works as a sex worker.
Like Malcom and Rivera, a man who is purported to be a woman.
Like Malcom and Rivera, a man who works with children in “adult art forms”.
Like Malcom and Rivers, rightfully shunned by common sense adults; even in the LGB and T populations for their toxicity to our movement and cause for equality and freedom.
Gay men and lesbian women fought against allowing these types of people to be associated with the “community” for a reason. The association of pedophiles and groomers with gays and lesbians was damaging and harmful to our fight for liberation, equality, and freedom. The passing of this bill will result in further homophobic attacks, increased accusations of us being pedophiles, and a continuing decline in the support for LGBTQ rights. I ask for a NO vote on HB24-1071.
Apparently his accurate testimony struck a nerve and he was gaveled out, which is the equivalence of being given the hook while testifying. Rich joins me at 1 today to talk about this. Find out more about Gays Against Groomers by clicking here. Follow Rich on Social media by clicking here for Twitter.
BUT WHO IS ON THE COMMITTEE? A Republican committee is choosing who will be on the ballot to replace Ken Buck in the Special Election and I'd like to know who is on the committee and the process they are going to use. It's a shame I don't trust the Republican party to not choose the weakest candidate so as to boost Lauren Boebert's chances in the primary that is happening at the exact same time but I don't.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT ENCAMPMENT IS GOING TO BE SWEPT And if I'm not mistaken this is the encampment where these folks have said they prefer living in an encampment to being in a shelter so I'm wondering where the new encampment is going to pop up. This is the one by Elitch Gardens and it's almost time for that to open so you know it was going to happen.
IS IT TIME TO TALK ABOUT BANNING PHONES IN SCHOOLS? The Colorado Legislature is working on a bill to curtail social media use by teens, but I think they are missing the mark here. We've got to do something about phones in schools. I realize in Colorado with our tragic school shooting history this would be a non starter for many parents, but more and more information about the damage of phones is schools is coming out. How about we make the kids put their phones in faraday pouches for the day? Make it a punishable offense to have your phone out during the day? The new Jonathan Haidt book is sounding the alarm on phones and the New York Times did a piece about him that wasn't flattering but then a bunch of New Yorkers sent letters backing him up. Other school districts in Florida have banned phones and teachers say kids are more engaged and behavior problems have dropped. So what are we waiting for? A study on cell phone bans had this to say:
For example, one study compared schools that have cellphone bans and schools that did not to investigate the effects cellphones have on students. The report stated, “We found that banning mobile phones at school leads to an increase in student performance. Our results suggest that after schools banned mobile phones, test scores of students aged 16 increased by 6.4% of a standard deviation.” The article went on to say that the effects were twice as large for low-achieving students, and there was no impact found on high achieving students.
MORE ANTI LANDLORD BILLS ARE IN THE WORKS Because Colorado hates landlords and wants to make owning rental property completely miserable. This editorial explains how this will have a lot of unintended consequences that will drive the cost of rent up even more.
A CONVERSATION ON THE VIEW SHOWS THE OLDER BLACK VERSUS YOUNGER BLACK DIVIDE Coleman Hughes is a relatively young black man who writes eloquently on race. He is an independent, he has only voted Democrat so far, though he says he would consider a non-Trump Republican and went on The View to talk about his new book on race. Watch that below if you want.
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Whoopi Goldberg and Sunny Hostin exposed themselves and not wanting equality, but revenge. Coleman Hughes comes off as the only adult in the room and note he gets the only applause. It's interesting to see Hostin and Goldberg reject his suggestion that we focus on lifting up people based on socioeconomic status, not race. This approach would STILL benefit minorities as they are on the lower end of that spectrum, but it's not based on an immutable characteristic only. Whoopi goes back in time to talk about policies that have been long dead. Coleman wants to move forward and talks about his experience, which was far different than Whoopi's, but she doesn't care.
DEMOCRATS ARE TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE RTD BOARD By making it much easier to stack the slimmed down board with Democrats who they believe can fix this very broken system. I know they can't but the Governor is hell bent on building another expensive rail line to Boulder that will be underutilized and probably will be used by addicts and criminals like the other trains will be. Read about the scheduled takeover.
DEMOCRATS GREEN ENERGY IS MAKING BILLS GO UP The lie that "renewable" energy is cheaper is being felt by every Colorado family as energy bills have gone up a whopping $92 a month since 2019. This is a good article in the Colorado Sun about why, and we need look no further than the Democrats Green Dream to see why. This is what happens when you grant a monopoly and then put government in charge.
STEAMBOAT SPRINGS VOTES DOWN AFFORDABLE HOUSING The killed the annexation of a property called Brown Ranch where affordable housing was slated to be built. Residents say the project is just too dang big, but honestly this is not a good look for Routt county. It's pretty clear the residents don't want the peasants who would benefit from this project to come to town. I hope they have luck hiring people for lower wage jobs that don't have a place to live now.
DENVER BANS SODAS ON KID'S MENUS Though you can still order one for you kid if you like. Thanks, Nanny Denver!
ISRAEL SAYS THEY CAN'T BEAT HAMAS NOW THAT THE US HAS TURNED ITS BACK And we did so at the UN where we allowed a ceasefire demand to pass at the Security Council so Joe Biden could try to win back votes in Michigan. Now Israel says they may not be able to get the remaining four Hamas terror cells in Rafah but I think they are just trying to make Biden look bad. Israel will go into Rafah, as that is where the last shreds of Hamas leadership are hiding.
RIP, JOE LIEBERMAN! The late Senator has passed away at 82 after a fall. Read more here. Older folks, please work on your balance, falls are deadly.
A DAY OF SILENCE IS ON BRAND FOR DPS This is a great column by Jimmy Sengenberger about how Denver Public Schools marked the one year anniversary of the shootings at East High School that left two administrators wounded. With nothing. They declared a day of silence, which is perfect for an organization that has done little to fix the problem. Read it here.
THE UNITED NATIONS IS TRASH AND MUST BE DISSOLVED And you need look no further than the new leadership of the Women's Rights Council to understand why. It's Saudi Arabia. Read this:
Women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia have repeatedly been jailed for speaking out, and Saudi women have only been allowed to drive since 2018 and live alone without a male guardian since 2021. The country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has framed these reforms — and other milestones, like the nation’s debut at the Miss Universe pageant — as steps toward equality, though human rights organizations have pointed out that the new laws did not eliminate the country’s male guardianship system and in fact codified some pieces of it.
And they were elected to be charge of the Women's Rights Council at the UN. The UN is garbage.
TWO MINUTE DRILL!
WHEN DO THE TULIPS POP AT THE BOTANIC GARDENS? Your best bet is late April to mid-May, read more here.
THE 88 DRIVE IN IS GEARING UP FOR ONE LAST SUMMER The new owner's development plans have hit a snag so the last drive in in Denver (though really in Commerce City) will have one more summer of movies.
DENVER IS HANDING OUT GRANTS TO GET PEOPLE DOWNTOWN And they are to support arts and entertainment events designed to do just that. You can read about some of the grants, but are they going to be enough to get people downtown again? I'm not sure.
YOU GOTTA BE A MEMBER TO GET A COSTCO HOT DOG DEAL NOW And I'm okay with this as getting a hot dog while fighting the non-member riff raff has become a huge issue (I'm kidding). You used to be able to go to the food court without a membership but those days are over and Costco is cracking down on that now.
THE GAY GAMES COULD BE COMING TO DENVER As we are in the running for the 2030 Games which would bring 10,000 athletes to Denver to compete. I used to work in a Longhorn Steakhouse where a bunch of the cowboys from the Gay Rodeo circuit would come in to visit and I LOVED when they were in town because they were all gorgeous and tipped really well.
NOW TRUMP IS A CURSE WORD AT least to a hockey video game that won't let you use Team Trump because it "contains profanity" though it has no issue with Team Biden. Huh, I wonder why.
AN ESPORTS SUPER STAR HAS MELANOMA And though this is awful for him it could save a lot of lives as he's only 32 and now telling his followers to get skin cancer screenings. Read more about Ninja here.
WHO ELSE SEES THEMSELF IN THIS VIDEO? Watch below or click here.
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THE DISNEY HUG RULE IS A REAL THING The rule says a character may never break a hug first because Walt Disney said "You never know how much that child may need that hug". Watch below or click here.
SPIELBERG LOVES DUNE 2 And though I haven't seen it yet the first one was really good too. Read why Steven thinks it is so magical here.
IS THE ARMY MOVING TOWARDS IRONMAN? Not quite but they are adding drones and robotics to their infantry divisions.
BOB MARLEY'S GRANDSON HAS SOME CHOPS And if you love reggae check this out.
KEEP YOUR KITTIES AWAY FROM LILIES! Thousands of cats die every year from Lily poisoning. There, that's a thing you know now.